GiveTadeReceive
by MJDai
Summary: He finds her in the last place he would think to look and saves in the last way he could think to save her.


The Caliph was acting oddly; Sinbad really couldn't describe it any other way. Even though the old man was acting jovial, the son and daughter in law were smiling and the entertainment was excellent, Sinbad couldn't sit easy.

Dermott seemed to feel it too, he kept flying around the room restlessly only to land on Bryn's arm shortly before taking off again.

"What's up with him?" Sinbad asked Bryn, rather than revealing his own unease.

"He senses something but he can't really understand it… I feel it too, there's some power here, not good or bad just… out of place," Bryn said.

"Sinbad my boy! You don't look like you're enjoying yourself! What can be done?" The Caliph asked, interrupting the conversation.

"Nothing my lord, I apologise, I suppose I am too tired to enjoy these splendid performers and this wonderful food to the fullest," Sinbad said.

"Then I will see you rested! I have ordered rooms to be made up for you all! I will escort you myself while my servants see to your crew," The Caliph got up immediately.

"That is too great an honour my lord, my crew and I will sleep as soundly on our ship and without any inconvenience to you," Sinbad politely protested.

"Nonsense boy, it is no inconvenience to have friends stay over. Come now, don't make an old man wait," the Caliph said, gesturing for Sinbad to follow him.

"Send Dermott if there's trouble," Sinbad managed to mutter to Bryn before following the Caliph.

As soon as they were alone, or as alone as the Caliph with his bodyguards ever got, the old man let the façade drop. "I apologise my young friend. I have some news for you and I I've tried to put it off as long as I could out of fear."

"What is this news that you should fear to tell me?" Sinbad asked as they continued to walk down the halls.

The Caliph sighed and started his story. "You know I keep a harem… I only take girls who have given their consent and have their family's consent as well. Or so I thought… Well it seems that about a year ago some slavers had gotten their hands on a remarkably beautiful young woman and they were trying to sell her at market. One of the women who teach in my harem saw this happen and took pity on the young woman. She bought the woman and even when she found out this woman was a mute who couldn't write still took her in, housed her in the harem and taught her just as well as the other girls. I don't keep track of these things you know, the harem is women's business. Apparently there were some other peculiarities about this woman, but none so bad that it made the matrons show her the door. The initial training of a novice in my harem takes a year after which they are presented to me and I decide either to find a suitable husband for them, to take them as concubine or wife myself or to send them back to their family."

Sinbad got antsy at this long story, especially when the Caliph paused in front of a door and seemed to take his time to gather his thoughts. "What does this have to do with me?" He asked.

"My boy, three years ago you travelled with another magician, did you not? She helped you and my son rescue my daughter in law," The Caliph asked.

"Maeve? The woman you're talking about is Maeve?" Sinbad asked, incredulous.

"I am not sure, but I did think I recognised her from that brief time we met," The Caliph nodded and opened the door for Sinbad.

Slowly Sinbad entered the room, barely aware of the door closing behind him. He looked around the room, searching for some sign of her when suddenly she appeared in the open arch leading to another part of the apartment. She was beautifully dressed in a long gown and decorated with silver coloured ribbons but… she looked drawn and tired, as if all the energy was gone from her.

"Maeve!" Sinbad shouted. It took two strides to get to her and then he enveloped her in a fierce hug, planning on never letting go. He felt her lift her arms and putting them around his body but they missed the strength she once had. She felt fragile, which was something he had never thought of her before. He pulled back a little to look at her face. "The Caliph said you were mute, is that true?" He asked.

She nodded and stepped back from him, reluctantly he let her go. She signalled to him, the same signs Rongar always used.

"I should have thought! Can you tell me what's happened?" Sinbad asked. As captain he was used to dealing with the realities of a situation before acknowledging the emotional toll.

Maeve touched the ribbon that encircled her forehead, her throat and then moved down into her gown. She lifted the sleeves and showed the ribbons came down to her wrists, she lifted the hem of her dress as well and sure enough, the ribbons wound all around her legs.

Sinbad touched the ribbon; it didn't feel like cloth at all, but like a warm fluid… It made no sense that it kept in place, it was obviously magical. "Is this what's caused you to be mute? Is it draining energy from you as well?" Sinbad asked.

Maeve nodded, relieved that he had caught on so quickly. She produced a scroll and showed it to him. The scroll had a drawing on it that looked a lot like the ribbon Maeve was currently wearing and described exactly what it did, how to make it and more importantly: how to undo it.

"It even siphons most of your emotions?" Sinbad asked, incredulous. Maeve just shrugged and pointed at the antidote.

"Well it didn't take away your stubbornness!" Sinbad joked, only to receive an elbow prodded in his side. He felt the sheer joy of having Maeve back rush him like a tidal wave and he enveloped her into another hug. "It's so good to have you back!"

Maeve kissed his cheek and then pushed him off of her, pointing at the book with a firm hand.

"Alright alright, though maybe I like you muted like this!" Sinbad joked but when he saw Maeve glower at him without any of the fire that used to smoulder there when she glared he quickly sobered.

"You need to give your breath to the sea… Wait, you need to drown?" Sinbad asked.

Maeve signalled that she'd done that and motioned for him to move on.

"You need to trade blood with your brother. Does it work when your brother is not exactly in human form right now?" Sinbad asked.

Maeve just nodded, not reacting at all to the fact that Sinbad had figured out that Dermott was her brother.

"Well, I'll just call him, shall I?" Sinbad suggested and with just the power of his mind called Dermott to him. "We've been practicing while you were away," Sinbad explained.

Dermott appeared in the open window and screeched joyfully when he spotted his sister. He landed on her arm, distressed that she wasn't speaking to him, not with her mouth or with her mind.

Sinbad explained the situation to him and Dermott chirped his consent. Maeve produced a small sharp knife and handed it to Sinbad. "You want me to cut the both of you?" Sinbad asked, not liking this task at all but as Maeve had Dermott on one arm she couldn't really cut herself and well Dermott didn't have any hands at all.

Maeve extended her arm out to him. He cut her first, and then cut the bird. Maeve pressed the wounds together and for a moment nothing happened.

Suddenly Maeve started seizing. Dermott flew up and landed on the back of a chair while his sister lost control of her body. She flailed around and lost her balance, she would've hit her head too if Sinbad hadn't caught her. He held her as tightly as he could; trying to make sure she hurt herself as little as possible.

It took a few minutes, but eventually she stopped seizing. She looked even weaker than before, her eyes fluttered closed after Sinbad picked her up so he laid her on the bed and went back to the scroll. It didn't say anything about the subject getting weaker from attempting to counter this curse but he supposed that made sense enough. There was bound to be some part of the ribbon that was fighting this process, draining Maeve of even more of her energy in the process. He read the last of the instructions and paled.

"Dermott, I think you'd better leave for now. I promise I will take care of her," he told the bird.

Dermott looked indecisive for a moment but then decided to trust his captain and flew back out the window.

Sinbad sat down on the bed next to Maeve. He caressed her cheek, her eyes opened.

"You know the last requirement, don't you?" He asked her. She nodded turning her cheek a little more into his hand.

"After giving and trading now you need to receive… You need to receive the seed from a lover…" Sinbad said, feeling uncomfortable.

Maeve just nodded again but then saw he needed a little more convincing so she kissed the inside of his wrist.

"A lover, Maeve… Someone you love, who loves you. Is there… is there someone you love?" He asked her nervously.

She sat up in the bed, now eye to eye with him and this time nothing could stop the sparkle in her eye as she smiled at him, suddenly a little shy. She darted forward and planted a little kiss on his lips.

"And you just staked your whole life on my love for you? That was a big risk to take Maeve, without checking first! You are still far too brazen," Sinbad complained

Maeve put her arms around his neck and pulled him towards her, only to stop just inches before their lips touched. She looked him in the eye, a challenge if ever he saw one.

"Yes alright, I do love you, but I don't like getting tricked into admitting it like this," Sinbad complained.

She didn't mind his words at all, just pulled him in for a proper kiss. She tried to lie back onto the bed to pull him with her but he stopped her. She looked a little chagrined.

"Don't worry, this will happen. But it is still our first time and I am not going to rush it, so you'd better accept that you're going to enjoy yourself," Sinbad explained unable to supress a wicked smile.

Maeve smiled back and waggled her eyebrows.

He definitely delivered what he promised! Maeve was enjoying herself immensely, her only frustration being her own weakness and flatness of emotion that made her unable to participate as much and as enthusiastically as she wanted. She resolved that as soon as she had her strength back she was going to give him as good as she was getting right now.

She would never know how he did it, but she climaxed at exactly the same moment he did. One moment her body was spasming in ecstasy, the next something else gripped her body. She was dimly aware of Sinbad rolling off of her and then she was floating as enormous amounts of magic were getting dumped into her body. Not just her own, saved up over the year, but of all the ones who'd worn these ribbons and had died in them.

Drained the ribbons started leaking off her body, dripping on the mattress beneath and evaporating there. When she was clean Maeve unceremoniously dropped back into the bed.

She laughed, for the first time in years she truly laughed. In her exuberance she threw herself at Sinbad, peppering his face with kisses even as she laughed.

"Maeve! Maeve are you whole again? Did it work? Can you speak?" Sinbad asked, suspecting it had in fact worked but needing the reassurance anyway.

"I love you," Maeve said. "Is that proof enough? I can laugh and get ready because finally I can get angry again too. But most of all, I really love you, I'm sorry it took all this for me to admit it and I'm sorry for forcing it out of you," she said her face full of life and animated. "And I missed you. You won't even believe how much I missed you."

He wrapped his arms around her, happy to see her back to her old self. "Trust me, I know just how much you missed me, because I missed you even more. And you know what? Maybe it's best that we were forced to admit it, we're both so headstrong we might never have told otherwise… and then we could never do this," he said kissing her languorously.

It was mid-morning before Sinbad appeared, considering that he had the sailor's habit of being up with the sun his crew was already worried about him. Only Bryn's assurance that Dermott had told her all was well, kept them from starting a search of the palace.

"Sinbad! Where have you been?" Doubar asked.

"Not to worry my good crew, I have a surprise for you, a wonderful surprise," Sinbad gloated.

"Well what is it?" Firouz asked, hoping for some chemicals he could experiment with.

"I'll give you three guesses!" Sinbad laughed. "No never mind, you will never guess!"

"What's the matter with you? Have you been possessed?" Doubar asked, who couldn't remember his brother being this happy in years.

"Yes, there was a wicked witch waiting for me in my room, only she turned out not to be a witch at all, but a white magician in need of rescuing. All she needed was for Dermott and I to save her and she was right as rain. Now can you guess?" Sinbad asked.

"Maeve?" Firouz asked, the first to put one and one together as usual.

"Hi guys," Maeve said, standing in the doorway, her arms crossed and her eyes sparkling.

"yes, it's Maeve!" Sinbad said, rushing towards her and planting a big kiss on her lips that left her laughing as well. With their arms around each other they advanced into the room.

Not to be outdone by their Captain the men of his crew rushed to the magician and hugged her and welcomed her back with all the affection they felt.

Feeling decidedly out of place Bryn stepped forward and introduced herself.

"I'm so glad to hear there's another woman aboard! I'm sure we'll become fast friends," Maeve pressed her hand warmly.

"I've heard a lot about you, you left some big shoes to fill, I am glad to leave those to you and just fill my own! I suppose you will re-join the crew?" Bryn asked.

"Haven't given it much thought yet," Maeve said.

"What?" Sinbad exclaimed. "You don't think I'm letting you go so soon after finding you, do you?"

"Just messing with you, of course I'll come back on the crew, I have a witch to kill after all," Maeve said.

"Then I suppose we'll be sharing a room?" Bryn asked.

Doubar made a lewd joke about someone else who would like to room with Maeve and quickly got shot down with a glare.

"Yes, we will if I'm not inconveniencing you," Maeve said.

"It'll be fun," Bryn said.

"Before you go, I have just one tradition that needs to be fulfilled," the Caliph said.

Sinbad and Doubar stood at the tiller and watched Maeve pace around, muttering to herself. Bryn joined them for a moment, Dermott on her arm.

"She's angry that she lost two years of her life, spent another as a slave, has been put in a harem and… well she's still angry that the Caliph forced you two to get married before consenting to release her from the harem…" She informed the brothers.

Maeve hurled a fireball the size of the ship into the water. The water around the ship started to boil. She obviously hadn't gotten used to her grown powers yet.

"I have to admit that I love to see her angry… especially when it's not at me. If only she wasn't ruining my ship!" Sinbad said and left the two to try and calm his wife enough to save his ship. Dermott squawked a 'good luck' at his back.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Sinbad sauntered up to her.

"What are you up to?" Maeve asked, looking pretty scary with fire running up her arms and into her hair without consuming her.

"You're boiling my ship," Sinbad pointed out.

"Oh," Maeve motioned with her hand and sucked the heat and energy back out of the water into herself. "I feel like I'm going to explode if I can't… I'm so angry and I'm used to work that out physically before I can come to grips with it but I'm so strong now I can't work it out without destroying something!"

"How did you work it out before you had magic?" Sinbad asked.

"How do you think I got so good with a sword?" Maeve snapped.

"Don't take it out on me Maeve, I get it, trust me, if someone gets what you've been through it's me," he said.

"You're right, I'm sorry, I'm just going out of my mind," Maeve said, gripping her hands into tight fists to keep herself from setting things on fire.

"I've got an idea, just wait here for a moment," Sinbad said and rushed off only to appear a moment later holding her old sword and his own scimitar.

"You kept it for me?" She asked, touched.

"Of course!" Sinbad handed her the sword, it immediately caught fire. "I never sparred with someone holding a flaming sword before, but I'm game if you are," he said.

She let out a frustrated groan and with some effort stilled the flames. "This is not going to work," she said. Suddenly she grabbed Sinbad by the shirt and dragged him off below decks, ignoring the salacious looks they were getting.

"Woah Maeve, if you want to take me somewhere, just ask," Sinbad said, not entirely happy about being dragged across his own ship.

"Yes sorry, you're right- again. My cabin, to talk, alright?" Maeve was obviously restraining herself to keep from snapping.

"Of course," Sinbad said and followed her a little more sedately this time.

He sat down on Bryn's bunk and watched Maeve sit down on her own, abruptly stand up again and start pacing.

"What's going on in that pretty head of yours?" Sinbad asked.

"I swore an oath to save Dermott, you know this… But I also swore and oath to… to avenge my fiancée and I would let nothing stand in my way," Maeve forced the words out, wrapping her own arms tightly around herself as she paced. "Rumina held Dermott, already a hawk by then; Cedric and I were trying to free him. She killed him, nearly killed me too… I swore to kill her, did everything I could to get stronger. Now someone has wasted three years of my life, my first time with you was forced onto both of us and the same ass who has held me captive, who bought me and trained me as he wished, he _gave me away. _Like I don't matter! Like I have nothing better to do than be someone's bed warmer or wife! These last three years I have had zero control over my life. I can't handle that, at all," Maeve said, at the last she turned to him and let him see it was despair she was feeling, that the anger was just an emotion she was more comfortable expressing.

Sinbad got up and stood across from her, taking her hands and looking her in the eye. "I get it, I get what it's like to feel like you're just a toy of the faiths," he said. "I get that it makes you feel hopeless and angry. I handle it by making stupid jokes; you handle it by getting angry. I think we've hit on something that might be a better way of dealing with this… We can do it together."

Maeve hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she said. "I love you, I want to be with you, I just… I don't want to be your wife right now."

Sinbad breathed a sigh of relief. "I love you too and I want to be with you more than anything, but when the Caliph said we had to get married my first impulse was to run for it!"

She looked him in the eye and smiled. "So we're on the same page here, feels good, doesn't it?"

He kissed her lightly. "It does. But how are we going to handle this? This being together, in love thing?" He asked.

"For one, we're going to have to live off the memories of our first and only night together for a while until I can get some birthbane together. I am not ready to be someone's mother," she said.

Sinbad looked a little affronted. "I never knew something like that existed," he said.

"Why would you? It's women's business. Now number two, you've got a lot of women throwing themselves at you…" Maeve said.

"They can throw all they like, I am not catching… No one but you that is," he said and kissed her softly. "That goes for you too, some charming, sophisticated, smarmy guy comes along…"

"He can keep on walking. I've got all the charm I need right here… and I'm sure I can teach you some manners in time," she winked at him.

"And we keep talking to each other," Sinbad stated.

"Agreed and kissing each other," Maeve said, looking at his mouth and wetting her lips in anticipation.

"Definitely agreed," Sinbad said and brought his own mouth to hers once again.

They ended up groping and kissing on her bunk before Maeve pulled away. She took a moment to catch her breath and said: "You're dangerous! I don't think I can keep my hands off of you if you don't go now."

"There are ways to pleasure each other that don't involve a pregnancy risk you know," Sinbad said, looking naughty and thoroughly kissed. He looked damn sexy.

"If you're talking about my butt you can forget it right now!" Maeve protested loudly, pretty much killing the mood.

But Sinbad saved it by whispering all the things he was going to do to her in his best bedroom voice. Slowly she melted back into his arms until it was time for her to show her naughty face as she whispered all the things she was going to do to him.

"I knew I loved you for a reason!" Sinbad laughed, tossing his shirt over his head and bending over her once again.

"Oh my god!" Bryn dropped a book in the hatch to her shared cabin.

Maeve and Sinbad shot apart guiltily. Bryn still stood frozen in the doorway.

"Sorry Bryn," Sinbad muttered, covering his rather obvious erection with his shirt as he edged past her without touching her and made off.

"Yeah, sorry," Maeve said, barely managing to look contrite.

"I thought you were fighting! You were angry!" Bryn said, thoroughly confused.

"We decided there were better ways to handle that," Maeve said, this time with an out and out smirk on her face.

"Does this mean you're going to move into his cabin?" Bryn asked.

"Nope," Maeve said, lying back in her bunk and folding her arms under her head. "I don't think it would be very healthy for us to be with each other quite that much after such a long time apart. We need to get used to each other again first."

"So should we invent a knocking system?" Bryn asked. "I don't really feel like walking into something like that, or worse, again."

"I don't think we need a system… just a knock will do," Maeve grinned at her


End file.
